Measurement and control of forces acting on a solar panel

The aerodynamic forces acting on a solar panel was measured in a wind tunnel and their dependency on the angle of attack and the aspect ratio of the panel was investigated using scaled models. The experiment was carried out at the Reynolds number on the order of 10⁴ and 10⁵. It was found that the forces have a Reynolds number dependency, which suggests that the current standard defined by Japanese Industrial Standards might not be sufficient to capture such a characteristics. Furthermore, a simple passive control method was proposed to reduce the lift force by enlarging a separation bubble over the panel. It was demonstrated that the lift force acting on the panel was successfully reduced by this control method.